The Oakland Athletics are the worst team in baseball right now, winning just 10 of their first 55 games and posting an absurd minus-199 run differential.
Now, Oakland hosts one of the league's best teams, the Atlanta Braves, on Memorial Day.
This is going to be an interesting matchup, as both teams have starters making their season debuts. Paul Blackburn, who was an All-Star last season, gets the ball for Oakland against Braves starter, Mike Soroka.
Soroka has not pitched in the Majors since 2020 due to various injuries. Will his return be one to remember?
Here's a look at the odds and my best bet for this game:
Braves vs. Athletics odds, run line and total
Braves vs. Athletics prediction and pick
If you've simply just faded the A's this season, you'd be pretty profitable given how bad they've been in the 2023 campaign.
So, that's the strategy I'm employing here with Soroka on the bump. Atlanta couldn't have picked a better time to allow him to return, as he gets to face an A's offense that is 29th in OPS and runs scored this season.
While Blackburn was an All-Star in 2022, he ended up finishing the season with a 4.28 ERA. The A's starter may have just had a hot start to the season in 2022 because he has a career ERA of 5.09 and a Fielding Independent Pitching of 4.48.
Both teams are going to need their bullpens on Monday with these starters making their season debuts, and Oakland ranks dead last in bullpen ERA this season at 6.50.
This should be a cake walk of a game – and series – for the Braves.
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Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.
